Regents approve tuition hikes, faculty furloughs

Published Friday, June 19, 2009 | 1:01 p.m.

Updated Friday, June 19, 2009 | 2:03 p.m.

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The Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education have voted unanimously to approve tuition hikes at all campuses and mandatory furloughs for staff, administrators and non tenured faculty.

The plan includes the following:

-- A 4.6 percent pay cut for staff, administrators and non tenured faculty via furlough days.

Employees will be offered the option of taking a 2.3 percent decrease over two years instead of the 4.6 percent cut in one year that's required by contract.

-- A 5 percent tuition increase for all undergraduate campuses in 2010 and another in 2011. They will come in the form of temporary surcharges to expire in 2011. Some of that money will automatically go to scholarships for low-income students and all of the money will stay on the home campus.

-- Graduate student tuition would rise 20 percent over the next two years. The rise excludes professional schools (dentistry, medicine).

-- The Advanced Education Program in Pediatric Dentistry will pay an additional $25,000 in surcharge fees and $5,000 in supply fees per year to make up funding deficit from a loss of grants. It is expected to raise about $300,000 per year.

-- The Regents voted to temporary suspend through 2011 the annual step increase provisions for academic faculty at the community colleges because the Legislature chose not to fund them. It will save an estimated $5.2 million over two years.

-- An increase in the student health fee.